I wish to update the majority of the custom fields in our Salesforce instance with help text, or overwrite existing help text in these custom fields.
Due to the number of fields, I wish to do this using a method other than going through the Salesforce admin UI - or else it's going to take some time!
What steps do I need to take for this to happen? I currently have a list of the field api names in a csv file.
A CSV file isn't going to help you. However, you can use the Metadata API to update a large number of fields at once using the inlineHelpText attribute of the CustomField element:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<CustomObject xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata">
...
<fields>
<fullName>Field_Name__c</fullName>
<inlineHelpText>Help Text Goes Here</inlineHelpText>
<label>Field Name</label>
<type>Some_Type</type>
</fields>
...
</CustomObject>
You can update these values via the Force.com IDE, MavensMate, Cloud9, Illuminated Cloud, SFDX, or any other common metadata tool. Ultimately, you need an XML file that contains the fields and the help text you want.
